Archived updates for Monday, August 15, 2005

Korean Patent Applications Increase as Quality Stagnates

According to Korea's Joong Ang Daily on August 4, 2005, the number of patent applications submitted from Korea to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office increased from 943 in 1994 to 3944 in 2003. Although Korea ranked fifth in total number of applications in 2003, "the technological strength of Korean patents, which ranked ninth on the global scale in 1994, remained at eighth from 1997 to 2003." An official at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Evolution and Planning, reportedly told the newspaper that "Research institutes and university labs should also be more aggressive in getting intellectual property rights instead of simply developing technologies used for research theses."